I’ve always loved the fourth of July for the same reasons I love the rest of the summer: sun, good people, swimming, grilling/eating. The additional piece of awesomeness is firecrackers. Not so much fireworks or fireworks shows, but sparklers and M-1000s and bottlerocket wars and those things that burn crazy colors and spin and shoot up into the air.

This year we upped the ante by going shooting, because it’s loud and sort of scary and, for better or worse, All-American.

Every Monday is Ladies Day:

We shot a Glock (below) and a 22. The former was louder, with more kick and bigger bullets. I was also, somehow, a better shot with it:

Shut up. It was my first try. I later killed a paper dude target, 3/3:

Shooting ranges are weird places:

Then we went swimming at the dam, and to Sarah’s lakehouse for grilling and fireworks.

No less than THREE vegetarians of varying loyalty, including myself, broke their vows for Joe’s upgraded hot dogs (lamb, pork, and homemade condiments). Worth it:

U-S-A! U-S-A!:

I took charge during the firecrackers, to a possibly obnoxious extent:

And, like any other party, we spent lots of time hiding out:

What with the burn marks on my chest from the glock shells, my burnt thumb from an M-1000 fuse, the copious amounts of meat and Lone Star, and Sarah’s cowboy boots, I think it’s safe to say that we totally went America all over everybody’s ass.

I love video games, having grown up playing NES and SNES,  but newer systems freak me out. I always get lost (I miss side-scolling) or terrified (Resident Evil 5) or angry (too many buttons.) With the release of the glorious new Ghostbusters game, and with my current unemployment, I’ve decided to get back into gaming… slowly. Andy bought me WarioWare for our GameCube, and I am obsessed.

The game is spazzy and obnoxious, and all about nerves and speed; this only exacerbates my controller-throwing tendencies. I love that various tasks include eating a banana, parking a car (my least favorite), helping a cat go to sleep, sniffing up snot, and catching apples in a basket as they are thrown by a monkey. I appreciate the throwbacks, like guiding Link through an entryway, or stomping on a goomba.

And don’t get me started on the music and sound effects.

Summer = video games, swimming, video games, eating, video games. I love it.

We tried camping at Krause Springs in December, and ended up warming potatoes by the fire and cuddling with them in our sleeping bags; for the record, I also found immediately unwrapped the foil from mine upon waking and ate it. We’re wimps abut cold weather, and of course camping during Austin summers is idiotic. We went in May and, despite the downpour that hit us the next morning, it was a blast.

Morning, before the storm hit. Sarah thought she was holding a water gun, not a pellet gun:

We’re a smart group. Makeshift coffee filter:

… And the Egg Saver 2000, when we realized the storm was coming:

Oh, and the springs:

More pictures at my Flickr.

I live with international dj Bird Peterson, and our new place on South Lamar is finally getting setup. Best of all, we live near the Alamo South and a few choice places to eat; it’s a great place to spend our (presumably) last year in Austin (for awhile, at least).

Incidentally, I used my AmeriCorps Education Award to get a MacBook.

<3

Everybody is drooling over The Dark Knight, as well they should be. I won’t go into a long review of how creepy the Joker was, or how dreamy Christian Bale is (you’re excited for T4, admit it), because at this point it’s just redundant. YOU know; you’ve seen it.

What I will share, however, is the following gem from the horrifically embarrassing Batman Forever. I usually don’t post/share YouTube links because it gets old fast, but I really couldn’t help myself in this case:

That’s right, Karate Washing. And don’t you forget it.

I did love 1989 Battman, though; it was a part of my childhood, and Jack Nicholson was just awesome. I loved Michael Keaton and even Kim Basinger in their respective roles. It’s one of those movies that we watched over and over again as kids, right up there with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Can’t Buy Me Love, Clueless and Teen Wolf (I was Stiles a few years ago for Halloween. If you’re worth your salt, you’ll know how awesome that is).

“Karate Washing.” Let’s hope Robin doesn’t make an appearance anytime soon.

Summer is easily my favorite season, and it always makes me all crazy-like. Triple digit days have me bouncing off the walls during work, lying comatose by the pool, and (soon) drinking Lone Star out of my recently purchased krazy straw glasses. I also end up eating way more bbq than should be allowed, and riding my bike through the same Hyde Park streets over and over.

(last summer, after a trip to Krause Springs)

I also listen to different music as the weather gets more intense. For whatever reason, I like my music to be slightly more obnoxious in the summertime, whether it be the singer’s voice or just a chaotic sound. I also buy into summer themed songs, which can be terribly cheesy but also great to listen to by the pool.

Sunset Rubdown – The Mending of the Gown

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! – The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth

ABBA – Gimme Gimme Gimme

Loudon Wainwright – The Swimming Song

I also listen to a lot of Biggie, and am of course listening to Akron/Family relatively nonstop.

What do you listen to in the summer?

A few weekends ago, Sarah and I decided that we needed to get everyone together for brisket, swimming, and Biggie Smalls. She took Polaroids and made hummus, I made brisket, and along with Kara we had some people come over, chill, and eat a ridiculous amount of food.

Hotlinked from Sarah’s Flickr account, linked above…

Chris loving life:

Sarah loving bubbles:

Failed experiment:

Me:

Sarah and Jennifer:

Summer of ‘74?

Josh says, “Art is movement!”

Sarah and I also hit up downtown the day before, including the Capitol and the Children’s Museum:

Kodak is discontinuing Polaroid film, so we’re going nuts.

SXSW is arguably one of the greatest things about Austin. I went full force this year (through a bit of scheming, guess who ended up with an artist’s badge?), spending day and night wandering downtown.

(me loving life, downtown. photo by mike the 2600 king)

It’s a little late to go into details about the festival, but I will say that of all the great acts I caught (Blitzen Trapper, Man Man, Billy Bragg talking about facists, Bon Iver, Half Japanese, DJ Klever, etc), Akron/Family was easily the greatest performance of the week. I’ll even say, without reserve, that it was probably the greatest show I’ll ever see.

I wasn’t sure how to describe, Akron/Family, so I checked Wikipedia: “folk-influenced experimental rock.” It sounds pretentious, but I suppose it probably works pretty well. Their albums are all remarkably different, with songs ranging from mellow and twangy to chaotic and almost tribal. It’s always a good idea to listen to a complete album of theirs, as opposed to skipping around. This is especially the case in their latest album, Love is Simple (2007). For the record, their self-titled (2005) is easily my favorite album.

(stolen from the interwebz)

Regarding the live show, I can’t really explain it and expect to do it any sort of justice. Everyone danced and created makeshift percussion instruments (banging two shoes together, grabbing aluminum cans), there was no break between songs, and at the end of the show we ended up singing in the middle of Red River Street. Instead of going in to more detail and reminiscing while getting cheesier with every word, have a few of my favorite Akron/Family songs:

Running, Returning (my favorite)

Shoes

Ed is a Portal

Let me know what you think!

There’s this great video game store in Austin called Game Over, specializing in old school video games and consoles. A couple of summers ago, Andy bought us a cowboy game from there called Sunset Riders for my Super Nintendo. Kara and I spent an entire day one summer beating the game, and have started playing again in full force.

(From the arcade version)

I grew up playing video games with my brother and sister and the neighbors, taking turns watching each other play Mario or Duck Hunt or StarTropics or Zelda. The urge to start playing marathon games always comes in the summer, and only rarely do I play anything past the SNES. We have a Game Cube that encourages me to brave Smash Brothers Melee once in a while, but I’d rather just play Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine on it anyway.

Anyway, as the resident Garcia I prefer to play as Cormano, the Mexican guy with a hot pink sombrero and poncho to match.

Mmmm, beefsteak and milk!

I highly recommend the game for its sound effects, prancing/flamboyant horses, and sparkly purple ammo. NBA Jam has also been a favorite as of late (“Razzle dazzle!” says the announcer!), and Aladdin has been beaten twice in our apartment in the last few weeks.

I really love side-scrolling video games.